“We are the only country in the world not to have a large museum attached to a cathedral of this magnitude,” poses Jean-Michel Leniaud, the president of the Society of Friends of Notre-Dame, “an old lady, created during the interwar period and whose aim is to create a museum around the history of Notre-Dame and to organize exhibitions”.
A museum that once existed, “installed next to Notre-Dame, rue du Cloître, in a building which depended on the archbishopric of Paris”, says Jean-Michel Leniaud, also an art historian and specialist in the architecture of the 19e et 20e centuries. But it was not often open, “once a week”and he did not survive. “As part of the redevelopment of the diocese's real estate, the museum had to leave and it was put in cash. »
The Hôtel-Dieu, the ideal location
The museum's works are regularly loaned, for example to the Louvre during the exhibition The Treasure of Notre-Damewhich was held from October 18, 2023 to January 29, 2024. But the Society dreams of a new permanent location, which could welcome the 15 million visitors expected with the reopening of Notre-Dame. If possible“closest to Notre-Dame, ideally at the Hôtel-Dieu, property of the AP-HP. But the latter does not wish to part with it, except at a high price.” An investigation of L’Expressin November 2023, revealed the underside of a “silent battle between the Hospitals of Paris, the City and the State”.
The other locations considered are located too far from Notre-Dame, with the risk that they will not attract visitors to the cathedral. “Our dearest wish would have been for this museum to be installed in the wing of the Hôtel-Dieu which overlooks the square, so that it would be as close as possible to the cathedral”reveals Jean-Michel Leniaud.
During one of his site visits, in April 2023, Emmanuel Macron said he was in favor of the creation of a Notre-Dame museum, but the file is not moving forward. “All we can try to do is relight the fuse regularly so that it eventually gets done.”
Thus, the Company participated in the mission of prefiguring the future Notre-Dame de Paris museum entrusted to a senior official of the ministry, Charles Personnaz. “The report concluded the interest of such an initiative, insisting on the fact that it is not only a museum to house works, but an archaeological repository to bring together elements of the site, and a scientific laboratory around the history of Notre-Dame”, concludes Jean-Michel Leniaud.
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